I arrived back from La Palma on the 10 March 2020 after a month of sunning myself. heard of the reports of a deadly flu type virus breaking out in Wuhan in China online. But like most of us in the west it seemed like far distant place and I didn’t realize how virulent the virus was? How quickly the chinese authorites locked down the whole of Wuhan to stop and prevent the epidemic spreading to other parts of china.
But not long after getting home I watched in amazement at its spread to the west to Seattle and Lombardy in Italy and to Spain now here in the UK.
I was concerned at the slow response and the mix messaging from the UK government, with the talk of crowd immunity? Italy dreadful death toll and the overwelming nature ot the Corvid 19 outbreak swamping the Italian medical facilities.
Suddenly the UK government change tack completely we’re now in the Lock down phase to stop the spread of the virus and potential to create havoc with the NHS UK’s National Health Service infrasructure.
Everyday now we get figures of the daily infectious rates and deaths. London being a large urban conurbation with the potential large scale infection rates. New York in the US is being hit hard with covid 19 cases and death rates. The virus exponential growth rate suddenly overwhelming Hospitals with severe respiratory cases.
Lets go back to first principles first, what is a virus?
What is Coronavirus or Covid 19?
How do Virus cross over from animals to humans?
What this film is telling us that we shouldn’t be blaming bats they’re are part of the eco system of life just as we are. But you could say we ourselves must take some of the blame for this dangerous virus, Why? because as populations size grows we encroach more and more on the natural world that surrounds us.
Lets now look at why this virus is so deadly it attacks our respiratory system and in the worse case scenario it can cause death. Flu pandamics arent a new phenomena, What is fluenza why is it so dangerous?
How does the Coronavirus kill humans in the worse infections?
Lets look at the bodies natural immune system and how it protects us every single day from invasion of pathogens.
Can we help boost our immune system by eating health exercise and plenty of vitmin D sunshine?
How do we stop the spread of pandemic virual infection by using herd immunity measures. Because we dont have an immunzation programme we’ve had to bring in a Lockdown programme.
Because we dont have a inoculation for Covid 19 Lockdown procudures have be put in place to stop spread of the virus and reduce infections so the NHS can cope with severe respiratory cases.
Today outside my home on the eastcoast of England a police investigation mobile unit was investigating a possible house burglary? The police officer came outside the property to his van and he spoke with a mobile contract gardener grass cutter. He said he shouldn’t be out cutting his clients gardens as it wasn’t classed as essential work. The gardener packed away his lawnmower and went off. Police have the power to fine self employed non essential workers.
The UK Government Chancellor of the Exchquer made an announced for self employed people in how the government will financially assist them during the lockdown period through their last 3 years tax returns. Listening to Rishi I felt proud to be British. Over the past number of years I’ve been unhappy over Brexit and the xenophobic nature of some of my fellow Brits.
Last night at 20.00 or 8 pm the BBC news asked everyone to go out into the streets to clap for the NHS. All of the UK people went out into the street clapping we could heard the sound of people also cheering! It was an uplifting experience. Like many I hope this awful time will bring us all together as a nation.
I have called this viral medical emergency The Great Pause.
I will do further blog post of some of cyber internet activities for children and families that have suddenly been created by ordinary everyday citizens. Chris Packham the naturalist TV presenter has started a morning live internet blog on wildlife birds and insects. I went out and took some photos of Bee-fly one of his topic subjects. Chris lives in a beautiful cottage in the New Forest near Southampton.
Finally maybe this is a good time to sit and pause and reflect on life. Spring is a wonderful time of the year everywhere you look you see the new buds sprouting on the trees. The birds constantly chirping for a mate “I’m here ready and waiting”! The skies are so clear and blue. All of a sudden our high energy life styles have come to an abrupt halt!
